News Briefs

October 10, 1995
Web posted at: 6:15 p.m. EDT (2215 GMT)

American wins 1995 Nobel Economics Prize

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (CNN) -- A 58-year-old University of
Chicago professor has taken home the 1995 Nobel Economics
Prize. American Robert Lucas won for "having transformed
macroeconomic analysis and deepened our understanding of
economic policy," according to the Royal Academy of Sciences
citation.

The academy commended Lucas for influence on high-level
economic decision making and hailed his "hypothesis of
rational expectations." With the latter, Lucas demonstrated
the role future expectations play on decisions by consumers,
businesses and governments.

Lucas praised the current condition of the American economy
in a post-award news conference. "The U.S. economy is in
excellent shape," he said. "Inflation is low and the
government is not trying to do things with economic policy
that it isn't capable of doing."

Born in Yakima, Washington, Lucas graduated from the
University of Chicago in 1964. With this award, he becomes
the eighth Chicago professor to win an economics Nobel.

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'Black Tuesday' strikes stop France in its tracks

PARIS (CNN) -- Five million public sector employees went on
strike Tuesday in France, sidetracking trains, stopping
buses, closing schools and shutting down postal service.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators joined protests against
the French government's refusal to approve a civil service
wage hike for the coming year. Millions of beleaguered
Parisians were forced to travel by foot or sit in traffic
jams. Dozens of French flights were canceled. Still, 57
percent of French people supported the strikes, according to
a poll in the French paper Le Parisien.

"Today is a warning shot," Nicole Notat, leader of France's
biggest union, said at an enormous Paris rally. She said
protests of Prime Minister Alain Juppe's other controversial
policies would come in the days ahead.

Palestinian prisoners free to go, but won't

NABLUS, West Bank (CNN) -- Under the freshly minted Mideast
accord, Israel is freeing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners,
if they'd only leave.

Many of the inmates have refused to exit the jails in a show
of solidarity for five women allegedly involved in the
murders of Jewish people. The agreement between Israel and
the Palestinian authority calls for the release of all female
Arab prisoners, but Israelis have objected to freeing those
who shed Israeli blood.

PLO leader Yasser Arafat is asking the Israeli Supreme Court
to order the women's release.

Guatemalan defense minister resigns after massacre

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala (CNN) -- Guatemalan Defense
Minister General Mario Enriquez has resigned following
last week's massacre of 11 peasants by the army in a remote
northern town. A patrol of soldiers opened fire last
Thursday on a group of Indian refugees on a farm. The army
has said it acted in self-defense after refugees forced the
soldiers into the farm and started to hit them. Massacre
survivors say the soldiers opened fire without provocation.
President Ramiro de Leon Carpio has vowed to punish the
soldiers responsible for the killings.

Japan's justice minister resigns over loan deal

TOKYO (CNN) -- Japan's justice minister resigned Monday over
a loan controversy. Tomoharu Tazawa's resignation was
expected to clear the way for passage of a bill in parliament
tightening control over religious institutions such as the
Supreme Truth cult, which is charged with the deadly gas
attack on Tokyo subways last March. Tazawa said he resigned
so that the controversy over his ties to another religious
group would not get in the way of the bill's passage. He has
said he failed to report a $2 million loan he accepted from a
Buddhist group.